Flex_ Do Something Different - Ben [18]
FIT Science is a way of profiling the breadth of a person’s personality. It measures an individual’s five key elements of thinking, which we called the ‘constancies’ because they are always important in what we think and do, and fifteen different aspects of behaviour, known as ‘behavioural dimensions’. A FIT person has both ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ FITness:
Inner FITness is when decisions are made on the basis of the five FIT ‘constancies’ or thinking dimensions. These are described below.
Outer FITness is when the person has the broadest possible behavioural repertoire. In a sense, a ‘whole’ personality. In the original model this behavioural flexibility was made up of fifteen behavioural dimensions. Outer FITness is the external or observable ‘personality’ of the individual.
According to FIT Science, the combination of these ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ FIT elements determines how a person sees him or herself and can measure the full extent of their behavioural repertoire. They also account for all decision-making and how well a person copes with life and gets along with others. They are key in terms of performance and getting on and not letting habits run your life.
A person can be FIT to a greater or lesser degree in terms of both their inner and outer FITness. Inner and outer FITness are independent of each other, so that a person can appear to optimise their observable behaviours but be weak on the inside, or they can be strong on the inside but this does not manifest in their behaviour because they are not flexible enough.
20. Inner FITness – constancies
The FIT constancies are, in essence, the core building blocks of how we perceive and act in the world. Together these five constancies determine a person’s inner FITness, or their cognitive architecture. They are:
awareness
fearlessness
self-responsibility
conscience and
balance.
The constancies are the core qualities a person needs to develop in order to overcome the pull of habits and expand their personality.
21. Awareness
This is the degree to which an individual monitors and attends to their internal and external world, the degree to which they can be said to be awake to all relevant aspects of themselves and any given situation.
Awareness is the opposite of habits and doing things on autopilot. Awareness includes attending to thoughts and sensory information in the moment. A central aspect of awareness is attention to ‘relevant’ detail. We all become habituated to look at the world through old eyes and see and sense what we have seen and sensed before. But there is much more available for our senses to see than what our automatic pilot points us towards. Consider all the sensory information from the environment around you now. Interrogate how you are sitting, precisely what made you read this, how aware you have been over the last thirty seconds, the degree to which you were aware of the factors at work in the last interaction you had with someone, and so on.
Awareness includes having insight into your own motives and needs, as well as the likely motives and needs of others. It also includes self-awareness in the broadest sense. It includes an awareness of options. It includes an awareness of when we are being driven by habit too, and whether that is good or bad for us at the time.
We now know that most of the time we are not very aware. I would guess we are aware less than 1 per cent of the time about less than 1 per cent of the possibilities. That is normal. But a FIT person has sufficient awareness to turn off the autopilot when needed and when appropriate, in order to make the most of situations and opportunities.
22. Fearlessness
This is acting without fear or trepidation, or essentially facing the unknown with the same bravado as the known.
Doing things without fear is necessary, not only for our emotional well-being, but also to help us do the right things. If we are fearful about future